The Global Search for Education: The Martha Graham Company Embraces Change

Posted By C. M. Rubin on Feb 5, 2021

This month on the Planet Classroom Network You Tube Channel audiences can screen a remarkable version of Appalachian Spring, starring Martha Graham herself. Appalachian Spring ballet was first performed in October, 1944. The ballet was choreographed by Graham, who asked Aaron Copland to create the music for her dance. The music, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, is considered a masterpiece in its own right. Appalachian Spring tells the story of a spring celebration and explores the lives of a young pioneer husband and his bride who are beginning their life together on the American frontier. The other central characters are a pioneer woman, a preacher and his congregation. The dancers’ costumes look like clothes pioneers might have worn back in the 1800’s. Isamu Noguchi designed the set, as he did for many of Graham’s works.

The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome the Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Company, Janet Eilber.

Janet, you have said that part of Martha’s genius was her eagerness to embrace change. The Graham Company is known not only for world-class performances of Graham’s masterpieces but for continuing to lead into new territory for dance. Most things went remote when the pandemic hit. Where will the digital transformation take you next?

We have been experimenting a lot with technology and of course the pandemic has increased that activity as we find ways to use the digital world to introduce audiences to our dancers, to what happens backstage, what happens in our rehearsal rooms, and also to use technology as an art form. We’ve created digital art that’s going on our YouTube channel, our Instagram pages, and our Facebook pages. So these are new ways to meet new audiences other than in the theatre that we are really leaning into and when we are back live in the theatre, I think all that we discovered from technology will enhance what we do there, and I think connect us more thoroughly and engage us more with our audiences.”

Appalachian Spring ballet was first performed in October, 1944. Why do you think this ballet is so relevant to young people at this moment in time?

When you watch Appalachian Spring, it is very stylized, it may seem like it is out of a different era, but the collaborators who created Appalachian Spring, Martha Graham, the Composer Aaron Copland, and the set designer Isamu Noguchi were determined to distill the essences of America into this battle. And they were leaning into the idea of a frontier mentality of American determination, optimization, and hope for the future. The ballet shows that life is not always easy, there are challenges. But they want you to think about and believe in the power of optimism, the hard work of determination, and resistance against challenge. And I think that is something we can all relate to in our lives.

Lessons learned from a pandemic: Is there any reflection or thought you wish to share about lessons learned from this past year and what the global community of the arts must focus on now to thrive in the future?

I definitely think there have been silver linings to this time. We have discovered new ways of connecting with people because we are so disconnected. We really had to focus on reaching out. And we have discovered ways of reaching students and audiences and collaborators around the world, and creating a new network of connection that can only help the arts thrive – that certainly should not be lost once we are back in touch in the theatre with live audiences.

Thank you Janet.